Caption: Logo of the Lagos city marathon (LCM) 2023 courtesy Lagos city marathon
The annual access bank Lagos city marathon 2024 took place on the 10th of February 2024. Although I had registered and started preparations to participate in the 10KM race, call to Family duty took me 18 hours or 1000KM away to Kano State . The 2024 Marathon was won by a 43 years old Kenyan, Bernard Sang claiming the grand prize of $50,000 by finishing the 42MK race in 2 hours, 16 minutes, and 49 seconds.
This post is definitely not about the 2024 Marathon which I missed, It is a throwback to the 2023 race. The LCM is an internationally recognised marathon on the schedule of the highest Atlantic sports governing body, the world athletics. Lagos city marathon started in 2016 and attracts runners from all over the world. Lasts year winner was a 39 years old Kenyan Edwin Kibet Koech, with a time of 2 hours 14 minutes 6 seconds to claim the $50,000 money prize.
Since inception, I have run and completed 3 42km marathon (including the last years edition) and 1 10km half marathon.
Caption: Starting point of Lagos City Marathon 2023 7:15 at the National stadium Surulere
Caption: A selfie of Myself at the starting line of Lagos City Marathon 2023 at the National stadium Surulere
Last year’s marathon was interesting and fun for me. I missed the starting horn by 30 minutes plus due to traffic. It was the peak of a cash shortage due to the redesign Nigeria’s currency the “naira notes”. I drove to a reasonable place in Victoria Island close the finish line in Eko Atlantic City. My intention was to take a public transport from my parking spot in Victoria Island to national stadium Surulere were the race would start. It happened that in my haste to leave home early 5:00AM, I forgot to take cash from home. In Victoria Island I moved round 5 banks to get cash from the ATM machines but was greeted with long queues as early as 5:30AM. There was no where to get cash to board a bus to my race and no car was willing to go that route on this day from all car hailing apps. I was left with no choice but to drive there, a 20 minutes drive from Eko hotel at 5:45AM with the race starting 6:30AM. This 20 minutes drive took me One hour 30 minutes, by the time I got to the stadium the race had started 45 minutes before. Unperturbed, I pined my number tag to my bib and started running alone with the intention of catching up with the slow runners. 10 minutes into the race I met my running partner, the 72 year old Chief Fuller who disclosed to me in the course of our running that he had been running marathons for over 30 years. He also arrived late, so we decided to run at his pace, and we chatted and took photos all the way. And of course I did some local guiding works along the race, taking photos and making a few edits of POI.
Caption: Selfie with my 72 year old running partner during the 2023 Lagos City Marathon
Caption: Myself and friend running at the 2023 Lagos City Marathon
And yeah we had fun running together and met a hand full of interesting people
However, the old boy was already getting tired by the time we descended the Third Mainland Bridge which was about half the race (20KM) and he had to retire. By this time I the winner had already been announced and I was the last runner because I didn’t run fast while I was with the old man 
. In fact at this time, there was no water point and organizers had started to clear the road, several buses marathon-dedicated luxury buses came to offer a lift to the finish line, but I declined. I was determined to finish the race and after 5 hours 15 minutes of running I crossed the finish line in Eko Atlantic City at 12:30PM to claim my 3rd 42 km marathon medal 
, haven eventually ran past hundreds of other runners.
Caption: Photo of me wearing my medal at the finish line of Lagos City Marathon 2023 in Eko Atlantic City
Caption: Selfie of me at the finish line of Lagos City Marathon 2023 in Eko Atlantic City
It was excruciating, the sun saw up and shining as bright as it could, the heat was intense and my feet were sore inside my running shoes as the heat from the tare didn’t give a break. Perseverance and determination to finish kept me going. I ran, Jogged, walked, strolled, (didn’t crawl though 
) but I never stopped, but kept pushing the limit.
Enjoy the photo of my Frist Marathon in 2017